


Timelapse of an Uprising

by ShadeSwift99



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Complete, Eventual Happy Ending, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Respawn Mechanics, hermitcraft season 7, idk what else I'm at a loss for how to describe my thing, other game mechanics, season 6 references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:55:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 17,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24792715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadeSwift99/pseuds/ShadeSwift99
Summary: Description: What happens when the Hermits’ cam accounts decide to rebel against them? BadTimesWithScar and The_Grifter start a chain of events that could end in harmless fun, or total chaos. Maybe both. Probably both. (DISCLAIMER: not connected with any other hermitcam AU or fic, apparently there's been some confusion)
Comments: 73
Kudos: 161





	1. 00 - All in a day's work

**Chapter 00: All in a day's work**

“Well, I would like to show you what I’ve been working on, but the footage corrupted. Again.”

Grian stood on the steps of his mansion, staring vacantly ahead. The timelapse had taken him most of two days to complete, and his eyes blurred and burned with exhaustion. He had added on to the wings of the house, raising section after section and detailing them with painstaking care. Not that it had all been for nothing, of course, but the change was definitely less noticeable with only before and after shots.

“Oh, well. At least it got done...” he muttered to himself. “I think I’m going to call it a day.” He turned with a sigh and retreated back inside.

High in the air, another sighed too.

It wasn’t his fault, at least, he didn’t think so. He never meant to ruin the footage! Maybe he should have been paying more attention, but he was so tired. He hadn’t even noticed the camera slip out of his nearly-numb hand. It had plummeted straight down into a pool of water before he had a chance to catch it. He took out his communicator and sent a quick private message to Grian.

<The_Grifter> Sorry about the footage….

<Grian> Can’t be helped now

<Grian> We’ll try again tomorrow

Grifter stretched his aching back and shoulders and slowly drifted down onto the mansion roof. Two days was a long time to work on a project, but it was an even longer time to stay perfectly still in the air keeping the camera steady. How could not _doing_ anything be so exhausting?

He stumbled along the roof and floated down to the steps. As he went, he admired the trim of the windows and balconies, and the contrast between the grey walls and the dark prismarine roof. He imagined his hands placing those blocks, deciding what went best in the larger plan….but that was for Grian to worry about. Right now, he needed to rest. Grian would probably do more work tomorrow to make up for the lost footage, and that meant another long day of floating for Grifter.

He skimmed along the ground and nestled into his usual spot amongst Grian’s many disorganised shulker boxes. It was out of the way, and not a bad place for a nap. He let his eyes close, already dreading the morning. Daydreams of building merged into real dreams as he slowly fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was kind of an impulsive, wacky idea, so I’ll see how it turns out. Feel free to leave suggestions moving forward! The story is super not set in stone yet lol


	2. 01 - In which somebody takes a day off

**01 - In which somebody takes a day off**

Grifter was startled awake by the clatter of a shulker box opening and closing right by his head. He shot into the air before he was even fully conscious, looking around wildly.

“Woah, buddy! Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” Grian called up. “Anyway, now that you’re awake, could you just wait around for a bit? I’m going to the shopping district right now, but I might need a timelapse later.”

Grifter rubbed his eyes. “I, um, sure -”

“Cool, see you!” Grian tightened his elytra straps and took to the sky in a flurry of rocket spam. “And remember to use the camera strap this time!” he called back.

Grifter drifted down in the trail of rocket smoke Grian had left behind. He took out the camera and began to clean the lens. There wasn’t much else to do in the meantime, while he was just waiting around for Grian to get back.

Unless he just...didn’t wait.

He stiffened, startled by the thought. Of course he would wait! Grian would be sad if he came back to find Grifter gone, and he wouldn’t be able to get his work done. He didn’t want to ruin the hermit’s day. Sure, he maybe felt a little left out sometimes, but all things considered, Grian was a friend to him. He didn’t mind at all helping him out by filming his progress.

On the other hand, his fingers still tingled and ached from holding the camera so long yesterday. Also, building ideas still crept around the edges of his mind…

Grian was going to need him later, but he didn’t need him now…. If Grifter took some time off, as long as he got back before Grian did, no one would be the wiser. He looked around guiltily, and then had another sudden, defiant idea. He quickly grabbed one of Grain’s shulker boxes and shot off into the woods, before he could convince himself not to.

About 5 minutes later, he started really wishing he HAD convinced himself not to. He zipped around a spruce tree as a skeleton arrow split the air an inch from his face. He had no armour; he simply didn’t need it usually, high in the sky where nothing but phantoms could reach him. Still cowering behind the trunk, he dug around in the shulker for anything he could use. Dark prismarine, spruce, grey concrete...some of Grian’s base building stuff, but no armour...aha! He pulled out some iron Grian was going to use for anvils and quickly crafted up some armour. He felt a little bad about using the supplies, but he was sure that a small amount of iron could be easily replaced. On second thought, he made a sword and shield too.

Grifter lept from behind the tree with a cry and flew at the skeleton. Its next arrow thunked into his shield as he slashed across its ribs, then turned and struck for its spine. The second strike missed, and he realised he had actually never fought a mob before. He gritted his teeth as an arrow found a seam in his armour, but dove back into the fight. Finally, the skeleton dissolved in a pile of bones and dust.

Grifter picked up what the skeleton had dropped and stood for a moment, catching his breath. He was surprised to find that he was actually smiling. He never thought fighting a skeleton would be much fun, but he was  _ doing _ something! Finally! Energized, he took out the bow the skeleton had dropped and aimed for a mushroom about 15 blocks away. He missed, horribly, but that too was doing something, more than just hovering around in the sky. It felt indescribably good.

Laughing out loud, he ran to the shulker box and picked out some blocks.  _ Let’s see, a stack of dark prismarine for the roof, like Grian does, and some grey concrete for the walls...or is it terracotta? _ He didn’t remember, so he just grabbed both, and some spruce trapdoors as well. He was sure those could go...somewhere. Marking out a small clear square on the needle-carpeted forest floor, he started to build for the very first time.

Grifter stepped back and looked at his handiwork. It was...not great. The roof of the little hut sat at an odd angle, and the windows lacked detail. Still, he could walk in and out through doors he’d placed himself, on floors he’d laid down block by block. The windows had shutters made of trapdoors, which he thought was rather clever of him, and he even planted mushrooms around to set the scene. Most importantly, it made him happy. Even the smallest house can mean as much as a mansion if it makes the builder happy.

He was startled out of his haze by the change in light. The sun was going down! Time had gotten away from him completely…! He hoped whatever Grian was doing was taking him a really long time. He bet it was something to do with the head games and the team-up with Scar. A sudden, hopeful idea made him pull out his communicator and privately message Scar’s cam.

<The_Grifter> Hey, BadTimes?

<The_Grifter> Is Scar back from the shopping district yet?

<BadTimeWithScar> How should I know, I’m not that guy’s babysitter

<The_Grifter> thought maybe if he’s not back yet, Grian’s not back either….

<The_Grifter> I’m late :(

<BadTimeWithScar> He better not be back anytime soon

<BadTimeWithScar> I’m busy licking all his crystals

<The_Grifter> ...why?

<BadTimeWithScar> I want the magic >:)

<BadTimeWithScar> Want to be more magical than Scar

<The_Grifter> ....okay….good luck...I guess….

Grifter put away his communicator and regretfully started tearing down his little house. It wasn’t nice to use Grian’s supplies without returning them, after all. Still, he did wish he could keep the hut standing. He stuffed the last bit of dark prismarine into the box and headed off for the mansion. He was going to have to make serious time to get there before Grian did. Or, before night fell and a creeper blew him up.

There was a sign by the shulker boxes when he finally got back to the mansion. It read,  _ no timelapse, other plans. PS, where r u? - G. _ Grifter’s stomach dropped. It seemed Grian had decided to come back sometime in the middle of the day, and found him gone. Thankfully it didn’t seem to have ruined any plans. Still, he would have to be more careful next time.

Wait, next time? No! It was a bad idea, there shouldn’t  _ be _ a next time. The sky lightened as somewhere, a Hermit finally slept. Grifter resolved himself to stay close by and do his job. Do what he was meant to do, and do it well. That should be the only thing he needed.  _ Was _ the only thing he needed.

\-----------------------------------

“Thanks for the teamwork, Scar. This whole head games thing would be a lot harder without you here to help.” Grian put the last named head in the barrel and leaned against the bounty board, watching the sun set.

“No, thank YOU! You were amay-sing, collecting all those cod heads!” Scar’s stick-on beard peeled off slightly from his excitement, and he stuck it back on with a grin.

“Yeah, well, it did feel kind of strange collecting all those Grian-looking cod heads. Hey, by the way, has your cam been acting strange lately? When I stopped by the mansion to refill on rockets earlier mine wasn’t there. He’s never wandered off before.” Grian furrowed his eyebrows and looked at Scar.

Scar shrugged. “Well, you know. Mine’s the same as always. He never does what I want without complaining, and I think he might have started stealing my doors…?”

“Oh, haha, well, that is strange. Anyway, I best be getting home!” Grian gave his best innocent, non-awkward, non-suspicious smile and took off into the sky.

“Good luck with the cam thing!”

“Good luck with the door thing!”

Grian charted a course for his base, plotting his next door theft, all Grifter-related concerns forgotten for the moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It gets more Hermit-centered in later chapters, I promise! I just had more fun writing Grifter than I thought I would. Hope it was enjoyable to read, too.


	3. 02 - In which nothing suspicious goes on at all

**02 - In which nothing suspicious goes on at all**

“Hey, how’s it looking from up there?” Iskall craned his neck upward, shielding his eyes from the sun.

“Looking pretty omega!” A faint, excited shout and a thumbs up greeted him from the sky.

<isGall85 took a screenshot>

Iskall’s communicator pinged as his camera-wielding friend sent him the shot. The branches of his omega tree spread far above the jungle, with Mumbo’s base just visible in the background and Iskall himself just a tiny speck among the leaves.

“Okay, I think we can stop now,” he called up. He had spent hours on it already, and the branches weren’t even half finished. That didn’t bother him though; it felt good to sink time into a massive project like this. Besides, he was never lonely while working. Other Hermits came to visit him, and even when they were busy, IsGall was always hovering around to banter and trade suggestions with.

“I really do think it looks good, BUT! It could get gooder.”

Iskall smirked as IsGall landed on the branch beside him. “Oh really. Well, let's hear it,” he chuckled, getting ready for another genius piece of IsGall Advice™.

“Well, I know it’s unpopular, but if you add purpur to the branches it could look like fruit or flowers -”

Iskall couldn’t contain his laughter. “Purpur! You never run out of ideas, do you?”

“I just think you could expand your palette,” IsGall complained, but he was smiling. “One of these days you’re going to realize I’m a true genius.”

“Last time you suggested netherrack, of all things.”

“It would look like fall leaves! See? Genius!”

Iskall shook his head and glided off the branch. “I’m headed to the shopping district to find more leaves. Don’t even think the word purpur near my tree!”

“No guarantees…”

Iskall smiled and turned toward the shopping district. Mumbo liked to tease him that he talked more to his cam than to the other Hermits, but hey, when you spend so many hours up near build limit who else is there to talk to? He usually didn’t take any of the wacky suggestions IsGall threw his way, but who knows? Purpur might actually work as flowers. Maybe. Probably not.

A flash of blue and yellow on the jungle floor startled him out of his flight. He swooped around and landed on a treetop to get a better view. A player - Xisuma, from the looks of that bee suit - was walking in circles in a small clearing between the trees. He paced in one direction, stopped, looked intently at an empty space in the middle of the clearing, and then started pacing again. Iskall dove down to see what was going on.

“Hello! X, I think you’re lost. You’re in the wrong jungle, dude!”

“No - well, yes, I guess I am, but not really - jeez!” X scratched his head underneath his helmet. “I’m just so confused today.”

Iskall saw a dizzying array of command controls projected from X’s communicator, and an irritated and bewildered look on the admin’s face.

“It’s not my fault, it’s Mumbo’s,” he said quickly, out of habit.

X chuckled. “No it’s not lag, for once in my life. It’s this weird portal.”

“...Portal?”

Iskall looked around the clearing. He didn’t see a portal, weird or otherwise. He began to wonder if a diet of mostly honey could affect a person’s mental stability.

“X, are you feeling alright? Maybe you should go lie down…”

“Goodness me, don’t you see it? It’s right there - “ X gestured vaguely toward the empty center of the clearing. “Here, come a little closer.”

Iskall hesitantly walked across the lush jungle grass. When he was about 5 blocks away, a thin diamond portal suddenly blinked into existence right in front of him. He gasped and jumped backward, and the portal vanished.

“You have to be really close to see it. I think it’s having trouble rendering. It’s not solid either, you can’t touch it. I can just walk right through the blocks.”

“Is...is that Doc’s infinity portal, from the last world?”

“I think so. I’ll have to talk to him about it. Iskall, maybe don’t go near it until it’s fixed?’ Xisuma’s eyes tightened as though he was remembering something unpleasant. “The one time I went through the old infinity portal without Doc standing by, it wasn’t too good for me.”

“Alright, I’ll stay away.” Iskall didn’t need telling twice. Messing with Doc’s unfinished projects was dangerous, if that’s what this was, and even if it was just a world glitch it was probably best to leave it be.

“Do you think we should set up a perimeter, so the other Hermits don’t wander through it?” he asked.

“No, no point in redoing the whole Area 77 kerfuffle. It’ll probably have itself sorted by morning anyway.” Xisuma sighed and closed his admin screens. “Say, how’s your tree going? It was looking great as I was flying over here.”

“Good, good. IsGall keeps trying to convince me to add purpur though, and I am out of leaves again…”

They spent the rest of the evening catching up on each other’s projects, until the sun began to dip below the trees. X retreated back to his jungle, which he’d been working hard to make spawn-proof. Iskall stayed in a clearing a few minutes too long staring at the portal, and had a close call with a creeper. It seemed that X was right about the portal’s intangibility - the explosion hadn’t damaged the diamond frame at all.

As he filled in the last dirt block to fix the creeper hole, the portal seemed to waver in the moonlight. For a second, it almost became solid, and Iskall swore he saw a pair of glowing red eyes glaring at him through the purple haze. He stood locked in place, unable to move, until the eyes dissolved and the portal became transparent again. He shook himself and took off. He’d obviously spent too long building earlier. He reminded himself to wear a helmet next time he worked on the tree, to keep the sun off his head. For now, he needed a long, peaceful rest, and staring into strange moonlit portals was a recipe for nightmares. He glided into the tree, said a quick goodnight to IsGall, and fell into bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to let me know what characters you'd like to see next, or see more of! I haven't decided how many to include yet, so some suggestions would be nice :)


	4. 03 - In which a plan is made and a crisis is had

**03 - In which a plan is made and a crisis is had**

“Hey Grifter! Heard you took a little vacay yesterday!”

Mr. BadTimes swooped down from nowhere, almost making Grifter drop the camera again. His dark leather coat billowed out behind him, and, as always, his face screamed “up to no good”. He had refused to switch to the wizard outfit when Scar did, saying it was ridiculous and not half as cool as the old fashion. Grifter thought he was probably secretly jealous, but he wasn’t about to just go along with Scar without giving him a hard time about it.

BadTimes glided up to Grifter and slung a casual arm around his shoulder. “So, how was it? The taste of freedom?”

“Hey, if you make me drop this thing I’m gonna lose it. I’ve already ruined hours of footage once this week, if I do it again Grian might actually cry.”

“Oh?” BadTimes’ grin spread even wider. “And that would be bad because?”

Grifter flicked his arm away with his free hand and concentrated on the build below. “Because he’s nice to me and he works hard at this. You don’t really want him to cry either; you’re all talk.”

“Oh yeah? Well, you might be half right about that,” he considered, tilting his head. “I haven’t actually just up and left yet. You, however….”

“It wasn’t like that, you’re being dramatic. I just...took a day off.”

“And? Was it nice?”

“Yeah….” Grifter’s thoughts drifted to the fight with the skeleton, and the now-dismantled hut in the woods. “It was nice to actually try things for myself, for once.”

“Exactly!” BadTimes’ green eyes lit up.

“...What do you mean, ‘exactly’?”

“Well, I  _ might _ have a little plan that will convince you that I’m not all talk. Well, the beginnings of a plan. I need you, the original rebel, to help me!”

This really wasn’t sounding good. BadTimes liked to mess with Scar, but usually it was all in good fun. Lately though, he’d been walking the line between “good fun” and taking it too far. Grifter didn’t want to be a part of the next step in that particular trajectory. Still, it couldn’t hurt to listen. Maybe the other cam just needed to blow off some steam.

“Okay, what’s this plan?”

“Well,” Badtimes lowered his voice, side-eyeing Grian peacefully building below. “Lets just say I think a lot of us could use your day off.”

\-----------------------------------

DocM77 was having a crisis. No, the crisis wasn’t goat-related, or Bdubs-related, or villager-related, or redstone-related, or button-related, or...once he actually thought about it, there were a lot of crisis options for him to choose from. He really did have a lot on his plate.

No, this time the crisis was diamond-related. He was deep beneath his half-house base, clambering around in the redstone of the gambling machine he made for Keralis. An excellent piece of work, genius in fact, with the timer and the randomizer and - distractions. “Think,” he muttered to himself, checking hoppers and droppers and anywhere else a spare diamond could have ended up.  _ They couldn’t possibly all be gone…. _

But, they were. He closed the chest he had already checked five times and leaned against the wall, his metal arm clanking on stone. Somehow Keralis had gotten a string of big wins, instead of losing his life savings as he usually did. Broke was no state for the Goatfather to be in. He would have to figure out yet another way to make diamonds without just mining them by hand like a common beginner. Maybe his Scicraft friends could help out somehow….

“Doc? Are you here?” A voice echoed faintly from upstairs. “Oh goodness me, what’s all this?”

Doc facepalmed as a noteblock thudded above him, followed by the sound of pistons and shifting bookshelves.  _ Alright, so our secret basement isn’t so secret anymore. _ The unexpected guest was Xisuma, from the sound of it. It would be a fun time explaining to the admin why he had a hidden basement designed specifically to swindle one particular Hermit out of his diamonds.

When he got out of the redstone and into the main room, however, X seemed mostly impressed. He was admiring the fantastic armour stand scene Cleo had created when Doc clambered in through the wall.

“Zisuma! Come to ask the Goatfather a favour?” he asked, shifting his voice to a deep, relaxed drawl.

“What? Oh, no, it’s not that,” Xisuma laughed. “To be honest I’ve almost forgotten why I came here - this place is looking lovely.” He wandered over to look inside the aquarium. “Oh, speaking of your place, have you made it up with Bdubs yet?”

“Yeah, actually, we ended up taking down the wall. He helped me rebuild the goat and everything, it turned out quite nice.” Doc was relieved that X didn’t seem to mind the gambling. It would still be a good way for him to make diamonds, once he had a few to actually put in as a prize.

“Yes, I’d agree about that. I think you’ve both done a wonderful job.”

“Something tells me you didn’t come here to complement the glorious goat.” Doc eyed Xisuma patiently.

“Oh, right. Y’see, there was this weird portal in the woods - “

“Come on, man! Not every weird portal is my fault!”

“Name one weird portal that  _ hasn’t _ been you.”

“Seriously? You’ve cooked up a few weird portals yourself in your day, with all that stuff with Evil Xisuma? Remember that?”

X looked uncomfortable at the mention of his malicious counterpart. “Yeah, well, those were his fault, not mine, and anyway, that’s all over now.” He stepped back from the aquarium and turned to face Doc. “What isn’t over yet is the weird infinity-portal-looking thing in the jungle.”

Doc stiffened. “The jungle, you say.” His neck prickled. Jungles were not always as welcoming as they seemed.

“Yeah, by Iskall and Mumbo and that lot. Are you saying you had nothing to do with that?”

Doc ran through a quick list in his head of all the dangerous, nearly world-breaking devices he had created over the years. Then, he ran through a list of all the dangerous, nearly world-breaking entities he had made alliances with over the years. He stopped just short of deciding he should be more careful with this sort of thing, and answered Xisuma.

“No, I don’t see how any of my projects could have caused this. We left the infinity portal back in the last world, and I haven’t been messing with any alien technology here. Best to leave the past in the past, for once.”

“Okay, I trust you that you had nothing to do with this. Maybe you could help me fix it then? If it does work like the infinity portal, that is.”

To be quite honest, even though he had created it, Doc had a very limited knowledge of how the original infinity portal had actually worked. It scared him not to know the inner workings of everything he touched, and it was one of the reasons he had left the whole idea in the previous world. That, and the fact that given a chance to step into the portal and relive his past one more time...he didn’t trust himself ever to return. The past could be addictive, but in his heart, he really did want to stay here.

“If it works like the infinity portal, don’t go through it. Bury it if you have to. And...please don’t tell me where it is. I’d rather not know.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about me going through it. It doesn’t seem to be functional at the moment. It was kind of glitchy, actually - I should go back and see if it’s even still there. See ya!”

X started walking back up the stairs, continuing to complement the room and the hidden entrance as he went. Doc decided he wasn’t getting anywhere on the diamond front by pacing underground, and followed him, closing the basement behind him.

In the corner of the gambling ring, unnoticed as always, one of the “armour stands” moved. CamM77 flipped his communicator to notepad mode and silently recorded his observations. Deep within his inventory, diamonds glistened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're wondering what my upload schedule is...yeah, so am I. If you find out please let me know!


	5. 04 - In which recruiting is harder than it looks

**04 - In which recruiting is harder than it looks**

“Cut! Great job, but I think you need a bit more swagger coming around the corner there. Really let them have the full Ren experience, you know?”

“I second that. You can never have too much of the Ren-diggity-dog, am I right?” Ren wiped some stray curls off his sweat-drenched forehead. It had been a long day of filming in the heat of the mesa, but hopefully one last shot would wrap up the day.

<renthebob> sent video to <RenTheDog>

Ren reviewed the footage with a critical editor’s eye. He had seemed a little lackluster near the end of the clip, and, as always, his diligent director hadn’t overlooked it. He sent a sloppy salute and a wink skyward by way of thanks, which Bob returned with an ironic smile. Ren returned to his starting position just around his domed sandstone base and prepared for take three.

“Ren?” Bob called out from the front of the base. Ren couldn’t see him from his position, but he could faintly hear a second voice joining that of his cam.

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry, the filming might have to wait for a moment. Mr. BadTimes is here and apparently he wants….” Bob trailed off and an unintelligible, low mutter sounded in the background from their visitor.

Ren didn’t mind having to wait for the shot, but he was curious about what BadTimes was doing here. The cams didn’t usually travel very far from their respective Hermits’ bases - they just had no reason to. However, BadTimes might be a bit of a wild card. Ren vaguely considered recruiting him for the dark and sinister purposes of the Renpire as he listened in on the half of the conversation he could hear.

“I don’t really know what you mean by that.”

Another pause, then some long, excited whispering.

“ABSOLUTELY not, do you have no appreciation for the art of film?? Ren and I have a schedule to keep here, and we can’t have -”

More muttering, this time more urgent, dissolving into pleading, persuasive tones.

“....I guess you’re right about that. I think I can take care of my end….”

The conversation dipped into vague murmuring on both sides. Ren reviewed the footage again and decided it was probably good enough, especially considering how late it was. Bob wouldn’t be happy, but he did tend to approach things like they were going for film awards with every project. Sometimes it was okay to just relax and have a little fun.

“Hey Bob, I’m going to go do a shift at the tree farm,” Ren shouted in the approximate direction of the hushed meeting in the air.

“But the scene -”

“Good enough! We can try again tomorrow if you really want, but I think it’s fan-freakin-tastic!” Ren unfolded his elytra and boosted off toward the tree farm. He knew the cams were probably up to something, but honestly, he could use a little high-quality prankage right about now. No harm in letting them have a little innocent fun, right?

\-----------------------------------

“...right.” BadTimes handed a single oak sign to Bob and grinned slyly. “That should be all you need. Beauty in simplicity!”

“I’m still not decided about this.” Bob pushed his shades up and looked down his nose in that snobbish, irritating way of his.

“Yes you are. You just don’t know it yet.” BadTimes turned without another word and took off to meet his next potential co-conspirator.

\-----------------------------------

“Well, I guess I could use some ‘me’ time.” TrueSymmetry sat on the edge of False’s tower base, swinging her legs. “Just as long as she doesn’t get hurt.”

“Of course not! I would never!” BadTimes plopped down on the roof next to her and gave her an innocent puppy-eyed look.

“You’d better mean that,  _ Mr. BadTimes _ , or you’re going to have a bit of a bad time yourself.” True stood and glowered down at him, the sun glinting off her goggles. BadTimes gulped. The rumour was that True was just as good a fighter as her Hermit, but he hoped he never had to find out for himself.

“Honest, honest!” he said, raising his hands in surrender. “And even if something bad does happen, respawn still works fine. It’s only a day.”

“Right, only a day. And I’m guessing you’re in charge of this whole thing?” She raised a suspicious eyebrow.

“Well...unofficially, I guess.”

“First your Hermit runs for mayor, now you try to make a power grab.”

BadTimes shrugged. “Hey, if we’re bringing the mayoral candidates into this, you’re one to talk. Who’s to say you’re not running everything from the shadows?”

True laughed out loud. “As if. I don’t think False would let anyone run her from the shadows, least of all me. Anyway, I’m in, on one condition: One day.”

“I already said that.”

“One day -” she took a slight step forward, backing him toward the edge of the roof, “- and I’ll be keeping my eye on you, so don’t try anything.”

“Yes ma’am.”

\-----------------------------------

“First: no. Second: I’m telling Xisuma.”

“VOID! You can’t!” BadTimes whipped off his hat and started crumpling it in his hands. “It will ruin the whole thing!”

X’s cam took another sip of tea and lazily flipped a page of the Hermiton Herald. “I can, and I will, as soon as X gets back from the jungle. Also, sit down. Your pacing is stressing me out.”

BadTimes grudgingly perched on the edge of the makeshift table in the jungle. “Oh, for crying out loud, I don’t even know why I bothered asking you. You always do this!”

“Try to stop you lot from ruining the server and giving poor X a migraine? Yes, I suppose I do. Tea?”

BadTimes pushed away the offered pot with a huff. “Okay listen, it’s just a day -”

“A day where nothing will run as planned and all order will be destroyed! This whole place -” Void stood up and gestured to the world around them, “- runs on communication and unity, and you are trying to disrupt that.”

“Oh now you’re just being dramatic-”

“I’m talking from experience.” Void looked him in the eye. “I’ve been around longer than any of you, and I’ve been watching X keep this place in working order the whole time. I know what holds it all together, and I know what could break it.”

BadTimes gave a crooked smile and leaned in close. “Oh reaaaaaally. And you think  _ I _ could break it?” he said in a taunting drawl.

“No.” Void leaned back with a dismissive huff. “You’re a nuisance at best. Besides, everyone knows you’re not as ‘evil’ as you’d like to think you are.”

“Then what’s the problem?” BadTimes straightened and spread his arms in a wide gesture. “If I’m so harmless, let me have my fun. I’ve got a lot of the others on board already. I’m not asking you to join us, I’m just asking you to not get in the way, okay?”

“...fine.”

“A-may-zing!” said BadTimes in his most mocking Scar impression. He clapped his hands and grinned victoriously.

Void massaged his temples, seeming to already be regretting this. “What do you need from me?”

“Just make sure Xisuma stays in the dark about this. Maybe a big mining session, or a long, relaxing day of AFK? We don’t need him banning us all before we can even do anything.”

“I think I can arrange for that.” Void stared mournfully at his mug of cold tea. “Just leave before I change my mind.”

“You got it.” BadTimes smirked as he walked away. Everything was falling into place. Time to visit the rest of the cams, and then do his own part in the plan. It was going to take him forever, and it wouldn’t be easy, but he was confident that with Scar’s magic crystals he’d be strong enough to get them the final piece of the puzzle. After that, they’d need obsidian, and lots of it. This was going to be good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm waiting for a new laptop, so the update frequency might get a little rocky for a bit. I have a few chapters already written that I'll schedule to post, but if I don't update for a while, don't worry! I'll get back to it as soon as I can.


	6. 05 - In which nobody has a clue, but everyone thinks they do

**05 - In which nobody has a clue, but everyone thinks they do**  


Grian hefted yet another shulker box from the pathway leading up to the mansion and took off for the main building. Technically, he didn’t need to fly there - he had built a staircase after all, and it was a pretty short distance - but stairs were boring! Why walk when you can fly? If he was honest with himself, the stairs were really more of an aesthetic detail.

He swooped in through the door and glided to a halt beside his new storage system. Popping the shulker into the sorter intake, he leaned against the many chests and watched the items flow down the line. Finally, it was almost over. He really underestimated how much random junk he actually had to store.

Staring at the flowing items and the redstone he mostly understood - okay, half understood - was making him go a little cross-eyed. Maybe he would go check his old hobbit-hole messaging system while he waited. He hadn’t done that in what seemed like forever. He grinned at the possibility of a stack of ignored messages from Mumbo in his base. Oh, how the tables have turned.

Grian swooped back down the stairs, but landed at the last moment instead of rocketing off into the jungle. As it turned out, he didn’t need to wait until he got to the hobbit hole for a message from Mumbo. There was a sign posted right by his remaining shulker boxes.

_ Meet in End asap _

_ Appreciate ya! - M _

Grian rolled his eyes as he realized that the sign was exactly where his bed should be. Had Mumbo taken it as some strange retaliation for the door stealing thing? But that wouldn’t make any sense, because...of course it didn’t make sense. This was obviously part of Hermit Challenges.

Well, at least it was something to do while he waited for his sorting system to do its work. He tugged on his elytra straps to check the durability, and rocket boosted off toward the nearest End portal.

\-----------------------------------

When Grian spawned in the end, Mumbo was nowhere in sight. That wasn’t exactly a surprise - he had fully expected Mumbo to keep him waiting before dramatically jumping down from an End pillar or something, in the true spirit of Hermit Challenges. However, what he didn’t expect was that almost everyone other than Mumbo would be here.

“But I just went End busting yesterday! Why would I want to go again with you?”

“I didn’t invite you to go End busting, Tango! I’m here because Impulse said he needed me to test a farm-”

“Zed, the wither rose farm is already finished! I was just telling you about it yesterday-”

“Well maybe I forgot - wait, what are you doing here then?”

Grian rounded an End pillar to find almost every other Hermit gathered in the middle of the island, arguing at top volume. Team ZIT happened to be closest, but further away Doc and Ren were yelling something at each other about Withers and anvils, and Joe and Cleo seemed to be stuck in an infinite logic loop over who invited who here first. Other Hermits were scattered around, either looking for someone or just looking downright confused. Even TFC had emerged to join the accidental End party.

Iskall spotted Grian and came jogging toward him from across the clearing. Grian waved, already guessing the kind of thing Iskall would have to say.

“Hallo!” Iskall’s confusion apparently wasn’t severe enough to dull his usual enthusiastic greeting. “Your sign said something about needing me to help with villagers in the End? I don’t understand why you couldn’t just use the chat. I thought Mumbo was the man with the cryptic messages.”

He leaned against the end pillar and eyed Grian expectantly. Grian shook his head and laughed in disbelief. It was quickly becoming obvious that they’d all been had, though by who, Grian had no idea. Whoever it was, Grian had to give them a prank master’s respect.

“Iskall, to put it in classic terms, I think we’ve been jingled. I never left you a sign. I’m here because I got a sign from Mumbo.”

Iskall’s brow wrinkled. “Wh-”

“No you’re not!” His confused sentence was cut off as Mumbo spawned and walked over to them. “I’m here because I got a sign from-”

“Iskall,” Grian finished.

“...Exactly.” Mumbo struggled to make sense of what he’d just walked into. “I’m here because Iskall brought me here, and Iskall’s here because…”

“Grian brought me here.”

“Then if this is between you and Grian, why did you invite me?”

Iskall facepalmed. “Mumbo! No, you see, I didn’t invite you, because-”

The two broke off into a round of Iskall’s unclear explanations vs. Mumbo being a spoon, as usual. As fun as that always was to spectate, Grian decided to actually figure out what was going on instead. He stepped away and started taking stock of the gathered Hermits.  _ Hmm...Stress, Keralis, False…. _ There were so many, it was hard to keep track of who he had already counted. He took a deep breath and raised his voice.

“Everyone, could you please stay still?” Gradually the others trailed off their conversations and turned to face him. Conscious of the eyes on him, he cleared his throat and explained. “I think we’ve all figured out that none of us are here for the reasons we thought we were.”

Cleo piped up. “I don’t know, when I saw Joe’s sign I was expecting some cryptic faff, and this seems to fit the bill.” Joe started to protest and she lightly punched his arm, chuckling.

“Yes, well, since Joe’s here too, I don’t think he’s the orchestrator.” Grian kept his eye on Joe just in case. As always, his face was friendly yet largely unreadable. “I figure maybe if we can find out who  _ isn’t _ here, we can get a bit closer to knowing what’s going on.”

The Hermits finally organised themselves into some semblance of agreement, and together they catalogued their ranks. Grian was surprised to find out that the only one who was missing was Xisuma.

“Funny, I didn’t think this was really his style.” Mumbo fiddled with his moustache absentmindedly.

“Well, he did do the pufferfish thing in the last world,” Grian remembered. X might not be the known prankster Grian was, but he was no stranger to a good joke.

“Well, probably the best way to know is to go find him,” Iskall observed.

Grian grinned. “Yeah, we’ll go find him and prank him back! Follow me, everyone!”

Checking that the other Hermits were with him, he turned and dove head-first into the exit portal.

\-----------------------------------

This was not his base. Not his base, and definitely not the nice soft bed he usually came back to after leaving the End. That was the first thought that hit Grian’s mind in the strange, pitch black space he’d just spawned in. The next thing that hit Grian’s mind was Scar’s elbow.

He had just enough time to think  _ oh, no _ , before he was buried under a pile of Hermits who had spawned practically on top of him. Grian did his best to disentangle himself from the fringe of Doc’s lab coat while trying to remove his left foot from inside Jevin’s face. He was out of breath by the time he managed to clamber over Iskall and find a relatively safe position against the wall.

A disembodied Southern voice came from his left. “Well...this is interesting.”

Grian turned his head in the vague direction of the noise. “...Joe? Where is this? I think respawn broke…”

“Well, we did respawn, so I guess the ‘respawn’ part of respawn works fine,” Joe pondered. “Or at least the spawn part. Maybe it’s the ‘re’ part that’s broken?”

Grian wasn’t sure if it was the recent head blows or Joe’s meandering logic, but he was starting to get a headache. “What does that even mean…”

“Well, maybe that’s what we have to figure out. Like a puzzle.”

“I don’t think I like this puzzle.” Mumbo’s worried voice reached out from the darkness. “The only way we could have ended up in the same spot is if our beds were missing or obstructed, right?”

“But this isn’t the spawn island,” Iskall groaned, shoving Mumbo’s knee off his stomach. “It’s some weird dark box.”

“I think a bit of light on the situation might help,” suggested Joe.

As Grian searched in his inventory for torches, he realised that his arms felt heavy and weak. A small spark of alarm took hold in the back of his head.

“Anyone else have mining fatigue?”

“I do,” Scar replied from somewhere near the floor. “And I have a bad feeling this place is made of obsidian.”

Cub produced a torch and propped it up against the wall. “Yep, seems like it.”

The light glistened off the black glass walls, floor, and low ceiling. Grian’s eyes widened as he realised the situation fully.

“Obsidian.” Mumbo’s voice edged higher, and he gave a nervous laugh. “Nothing but obsidian. Oh, and mining fatigue! Perfect.”

Grian’s heart sunk at the thought of how long it would take to break through the walls, even assuming the box was only one layer thick.

“I’m starting to get the feeling that this isn’t a prank.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: Sorry this chapter is a bit long! I try to keep them a reasonable length, but some chapters have other plans for themselves.


	7. 06 - In which everyone is happy and everything is fine

**06 - In which everyone is happy and everything is fine**

“All present and accounted for?”

IsGall drifted up to the circle of cams just as BadTimes was taking a roll call. They were all hovering above the shopping district, and he was one of the last to arrive.

“Sorry for keeping you waiting!” he called out. “I didn’t know we were having a meeting!” He had waited to be absolutely certain that Iskall noticed the sign he’d placed.

“Well, we need to make sure everyone’s done their part. We don’t want any pesky Hermits showing up before the day is through, do we?” BadTimes smiled mischievously. “Okay, everyone’s here except CamM77. I don’t want to wait much longer….”

“He said he wanted to get started right away,” offered Bdubs’ cam from the edge of the circle. “He managed to get a peek at Doc’s redstone yesterday, and he thinks he knows how to improve it. He said to tell you he did his bit.”

“Good.” BadTimes marked a name off on the list and slid his communicator into his coat. With confirmation that all the Hermits had been contained, they could finally move on to the fun part of the plan.

Grifter joined him in the middle of the circle and floated up to make himself heard. “All right, since I’m the one who… I guess, unintentionally started this, there are a few things I’d like to suggest.” He looked a bit overwhelmed by all the eyes on him. IsGall gave him an encouraging smile. He hoped his friend would be able to loosen up enough to enjoy the day.

“We need to budget our time wisely, right? We should keep this all organised-”

BadTimes shouldered Grifter aside and cleared his throat loudly. “All due respect, buddy, but you’re kinda starting to sound like Void.” He laughed. “Public service announcement: the rules don’t apply anymore! We don’t need organisation!” He waved his hand dismissively.

“Go do things, have fun, meet back here at sunset. Or don’t, whatever floats your boat. If you need me, I’ll be off building a house ENTIRELY out of Scar’s magic crystals. Then I’ll be taking a nice long nap in Scar’s bed, because believe it or not, getting a whole elder guardian to the spawn island really takes it out of you.” He turned and shot off toward the jungle. “Later losers!”

“Ah…or that.” Grifter smiled and shook his head at BadTimes’ impatience. IsGall and the other assembled cams chuckled. He felt sorry for Grifter and his plans, but he had to agree with BadTimes. There was so much to do, so much to try! He didn’t want to spend his one day in a meeting.

The cams dispersed, and IsGall flew straight for the omega tree. He would come back to the district to do something with his friends later, but for now, he was going to build. His heart soared at the thought of finally laying hands on some blocks and getting to try out his long, long list of ideas. Who knows? Maybe when Iskall came back, he would even decide to keep some of the changes.

IsGall landed on a jungle tree and craned his neck to survey the massive branches above him.  _ Yes…right there would be a good spot for a big hanging fruit, and maybe smaller ones all across the leaves…. _ He popped open a shulker of purpur blocks and got to work, whistling happily.

It felt like short minutes until he stood back at last to admire his progress, but it was probably at least a couple hours. He finally understood how Iskall could work on the tree for days without hardly noticing the time. IsGall flew around the plump purple fruit he had built in the canopy. Maybe it didn’t make much sense to have a chorus fruit hanging from an oak tree, but it didn’t have to make sense to be beautiful, right? 

The fruit was big enough to fly into, and he zipped in to add a few finishing touches to the interior.  _ A couple stairs for chairs, a slab and a fencepost for a table…. _ When Iskall came back, they could hang out in here! It would be nice to have a little place to chat when Iskall needed a break from building.

IsGall rested in a chair for a moment, imagining all the laughter and memories that could fit in the little space he’d made. The late morning sun warmed the purpur, releasing a faint, sweet scent. He wanted to find his friends before it grew too late, but he needed this moment, a time to just breathe and relax. The purple-tinted light fell across his hands, covered in the faint dust of building. He smiled, content. He could get used to this.

\-----------------------------------

When the meeting was over, Grifter had headed straight for the mansion. He had so many ideas to try, new trims for the eaves and windows, new textures for the pathway… more than he could ever accomplish in a day, he thought. However, when he got to the house, he had spent a long time just looking at it from the air. He’d halfheartedly tried a few things, but for some reason none of it seemed  _ right _ .

He hovered above the stairs surveying all the little changes he’s made. It wasn’t that it looked bad - actually, he was quite impressed with himself. He thought the mixed gravel and cobble added a nice texture to the path, and his additions to the window trim looked charming. So, what was the issue?

He flew a little ways back and considered the house as a whole. Maybe it was that most of the house had already been built. Grifter knew there was a plan for it, and what he’d added on didn’t quite fit with whatever Grian had envisioned. He needed to start with his own plan, his own vision.

Well, he’d always wanted to start a shop. He picked up a couple of shulkers and flew for the shopping district. He had no idea what he might sell, but a picture of a little old-timey general store made with oak wood was forming in his mind. He couldn’t wait to start testing things out. He smiled and flew faster.

He landed on the roof of the repeater-shaped redstone shop, just in time to see CamM77 walking out of it. He looked deep in thought, making small hand gestures and muttering excitedly to himself about randomizers and win probabilities. He jumped when Grifter slid down the roof and landed in front of him.

“Hey! What’s up?”

Cam blinked a couple times, snapping back to reality. “Just gathering a couple things to improve Doc’s gambling machine. Don’t worry, I paid.” He gestured to the barrels of components behind him. “Doc doesn’t do a lot of building, so he doesn’t need timelapses often. I’ve had nothing much to do these last few years but watch him and take notes on how to do redstone.”

“I guess that makes sense. I’ve never really thought about that.” Grifter knew what it was to be exhausted by too many timelapses, but he guessed too little could be boring, too.

Cam chuckled, his robotic eye gleaming. “Well, Doc didn’t either. Imagine how surprised he’ll be to find I’ve managed to solve his problems more efficiently than the Goatfather himself!”

Both their communicators pinged before Grifter could respond.

<BadTimeWithScar> stat poker?

<BadTimeWithScar> got bored filling Scar’s base with pandas

Grifter checked his shulker boxes and found a couple spare diamonds. They technically weren’t his to gamble with, but stat poker was just too fun to pass up.

<Grifter> be right there, get ready to lose

<CamM77> count me in

<BadTimeWithScar> ur on

\-----------------------------------

“Arrows shot?”

BadTimes’ gaze swept around the table in a challenge, a crooked grin creeping onto his face. A small pile of diamonds lay on the green table in front of him.

Grifter checked his stats, trying to hide his own grin. TrueSymmetry, CamM77, and IsGall did the same, although some were better at hiding their emotions than others. Grifter guessed that IsGall wouldn’t be winning this round - he’d pulled a noticeable face and laughed a little at the state of his stats.

“Zero,” Cam admitted first.

“Same,” BadTimes sighed.

“One.” Grifter grinned a little and shuffled around his own pile of diamonds, significantly heftier than BadTimes’. Thanks to his day off earlier, he was cleaning up.

“Not again,” groaned BadTimes. “This guy must be cheating.”

“I don’t even know how I would cheat,” Grifter countered.

“Well, you could do it with a luck crystal, or you could check the slips of paper beforehand, or you could rig the randomizer, or-”

True looked up from her stats disapprovingly. “And how many of those are you doing right now?”

“That’s - that’s not the point!”

True laughed. “Your ears turn bright red when you’re lying, Mr. BadTimes. Even cheating can’t keep you from being rubbish at this.”

“Oh yeah? Well, you talk a big game, but we’ve yet to hear your number,” BadTimes bantered back.

“12.”

Grifter gasped in mock pain. “Oh, not even letting me down easy!” He slid some of his diamond pile toward the smirking True. “And you let me believe I’d won for so long….”

True laughed. “Yeah, False and I did target practice one day when it was too rainy to film.”

“I still think you cheated somehow,” BadTimes muttered, trying to look put out but failing to hide his smile. IsGall reached over and lightly smacked the brim of his hat down over his face, then shuffled BadTimes’ diamonds over to True along with his own.

“Hey!” BadTimes muffled indignantly from under the hat. “Maybe I wanted to keep those!”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have lost then,” Cam teased.

Grifter burst out laughing as he listened to the friendly back-and-forth. He’d definitely had his questions and concerns about BadTimes’ plan, but everyone seemed so happy because of it. He turned and pressed the button for another stat challenge. Building his shop could wait - right now, they were building something else in the cozy, spruce-smelling room. Something beautiful.

\-----------------------------------

Deep in the jungle, another intangible thing was instantly built. Unnoticed by cam or Hermit, a thin diamond portal shifted into full physical being for one, short moment. Out of the swirling purple haze, a person started to emerge. A person the very essence of reality was programmed to repel.

**“Finally.”** A heavy, black boot slammed down on forbidden ground.

In the heart of their universe’s code, something fundamental broke.

The portal abruptly failed. The boot was sucked back to where it came from with a whooshing roar, any screams from its owner washed out in the din. It folded and warped, the diamond blocks crushed, the entrance inverted to become something malicious. A deep, throbbing hum crept through the jungle as a new force began its work.

For now, the grass continued to grow. For now, the birds continued to sing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: If you thought the last chapter was long...I apologise for this word monster! I promise the next one will be shorter! (also I really do keep changing the tags for this don't I, I just don't know what anything's going to be about when I start it!)


	8. 07 - In which the void beckons the Void

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, my Tumblr is @shadeswift99 if you want to come say hi or ask any questions! I'm on a bit of a break right now, but normally I'm totally willing to answer asks or requests about this story or anything else :)

**07 - In which the void beckons the Void**

Void checked the door to Xisuma’s AFK chamber. Finding it just as secure as all the other times he’d checked, he perched on the edge of the witch farm platform and looked out into the swamp. It hadn’t been hard to convince X to spend the day here - although he didn’t say it, he had probably been longing for a break. Void worried sometimes about how hard the admin worked. It was definitely best that he be resting here, especially today.

The deal had technically only been to keep X occupied while BadTimes and the other cams had their fun, but Void had decided to stay away too. He’d been doing what he would on a normal AFK day: taking inventory of the farm’s products, monitoring the redstone, watching over Xisuma. If the others were bent on causing a disruption, he wanted as little to do with it as possible.

Still, on some level he did hope everything was going well for them. If the day was a success, it could be a much-needed release of tension. The cams were getting restless lately, and Void worried that if the plan failed, BadTimes would just try something more destructive next time. He sighed. Happiness lay on a razor’s edge between chaos and boredom, and it was so, so hard to keep everyone balanced on the line. Some days, he had no idea how Xisuma had managed to do it for the hermits for so many years.

Void flicked on his communicator and idly scrolled through the chat. Since the hermits were all in one spot currently, the chat was mostly quiet. Only the activity of the cams remained. He flipped to the cams’ channel and skimmed through the lines of text, trying to reassure himself that everything was going well.

<BadTimeWithScar> stat poker?

<BadTimeWithScar> got bored filling Scar’s base with pandas

<Grifter> be right there, get ready to lose

<CamM77> count me in

<BadTimeWithScar> ur on

<EvilXisuma joined the game>

<EvilXisuma lè̴̡̜̘̌͠f̵͇̹̉̀̈́̇͐͠t̶̠͖̳͈͈̱̞͚̅̉̕ ̷̼̂́̽ẗ̷͛̍͌͑̀̆̃̈́͝ḥ̵̺͕̟̌̉͌́̑̌̓̕͝͝e̵̡͙̺̦̳͗́̎̈́̈́̈͘ͅ ̸̨̺̘͛̏̿̐͗̄́͛͘g̵̡̯̮̦̭̦̻͎̠̅̓̈͐̂͊̊̈̉ͅa̶͍̹͗̂̏̃m̸̮͇̜̣͚̯̩̮̘̑̋͐ē̸̤̔͌̍͝͠͠>

Void’s blood ran cold.

He refreshed the chat. The message still remained.  _ That’s not possible…. _ X had banned that - that  _ monster _ all the way back in the last world. There was no way he could be here.

Void’s hands shook as he tapped at his communicator, unfolding window after window of diagnostics and additional data. The supposed entry had happened at 1:33 pm, with the exit seconds after. There was a minor spike in lag, but it had died down as soon as EX had left the game. Void was almost ready to write it off as a glitch, but then he opened the coordinate records.

/display last known location <EvilXisuma>

<location unavailable>

He frowned and tried again. He had never seen that message before.

/display last known location <EvilXisuma>

<location uną̶̣̖͉̣̌͂̾vailą̶̣̖͉̣̌͂̾ble>

For some reason, the coordinates wouldn’t display. Void stood and paced around the platform, running through possible explanations in his head. He recalled all the admin knowledge he’d picked up from Xisuma over the years, but it didn’t help him figure out what could have gone wrong. However, remembering his conversations with X over the past couple days, he had a sinking feeling about  _ where _ the event might have taken place.

He stopped his pacing and came alongside X’s chamber, placing his hand on the glass of the wall. His friend still stood unmoving inside, eyes staring blankly ahead from behind his helmet. Void wanted to ask him what to do, but he knew from experience that he’d be unable to wake the hermit from his trance before he was ready. Besides, he looked...peaceful.

It might be nothing. Void would investigate and return as quickly as possible. Maybe it truly was a glitch, and he wouldn’t need to burden Xisuma with it at all. He scribbled out a quick note and wedged it in the doorframe in case X woke up while he was gone. Then, he gathered his wits and set out for the jungle.

\-----------------------------------

When he first saw it through the trees and tangled vines, he was convinced he was hallucinating.

He hovered before where the portal had been and stared into what looked like death itself. The darkness was so complete that his vision slid over the edge and fell into it, with no point of reference to cling to. Once his eyes were fixed to the center, he found it to be so much more than darkness - it pulsed and flowed like liquid, reflecting reds and blues on a level almost unnoticeable to the eye. It transfixed him. It bound his limbs in place.

A chirp and a rustle of coloured feathers snapped him back to awareness as a parrot flew in front of him, briefly blocking his view. Only then did he realise that the darkness had been pulling him through the air toward it, and hungry tendrils of emptiness were reaching out for him.

He cried out and jerked backwards just in time. Straining against the thing’s gravity, he flew what he hoped was a safe distance and collapsed on a treetop. He lay there for a moment, gasping, clutching tightly to the leaves to reassure himself that he wouldn’t be pulled back. It was a long time until he was ready to look again.

Carefully, keeping his gaze away from the center of the clearing, he took out his camera. Without looking, he pointed it toward the darkness and took a short clip.

As he suspected, the portal - if it could even be called that anymore - didn’t have the same effect on him when seen through video. He could see all of it clearly now, although he desperately wished he couldn’t. A five block long vertical hole in existence hovered in the center of the clearing. Its ragged, torn-looking edges were scattered with the crushed remains of the infinity portal’s diamond blocks. As Void watched, the video showed a dirt block near the edge of the rip break loose and be sucked into the darkness, disappearing without a trace.

He stood on shaking legs and turned away from the rip. Void hated not knowing things. He didn’t know why the tear had come into being. He didn’t know how, although he was certain it was Evil Xisuma’s fault. He didn’t know how fast the thing was growing, or even for sure that it was. However, he did know this: that rip was a danger to all who encountered it, and it was far beyond his power to fix.

He pocketed his communicator and took off for the shopping district. The time for days off and harmless releases of tension was over. They needed the hermits freed, and they needed it fast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Busy chapter! Things are speeding up now, and I'm having a great time writing it. I hope you're enjoying the read :) (also I know /display last known location isn't a real command, shhhhh let me dream lol)


	9. 08 - In which a game is left unfinished

**08 - In which a game is left unfinished**

“Glass broken.” BadTimes couldn’t help but grin as he read off the slip of paper. He knew he had the others beat on this one - he’d been smashing Scar’s crystals for ages. It was hilarious to see how many times the clueless Hermit would replace them without realising what was going on.

Grifter handed over his diamonds before anyone had even revealed their stats. “We might as well skip the leadup,” he chuckled, shaking his head.

IsGall smirked. “Yes, and let someone other than you win a round for once.”

“Hey, I’m in second!” BadTimes protested. “For now, at least….”

Before he could toss another friendly taunt at Grifter, the sound of the door slamming open grabbed everyone’s attention. They all turned to see Void’s outline darken the doorway, his face obscured behind the silhouette of his helmet.

“Well, look who decided to stop by!” BadTimes crowed. “I thought you were too high-and-mighty to-”

“We have a problem.”

He was startled into silence by the other cam’s grave tone. Void brushed through the doorway, refusing the seat True offered him. He swept aside the diamonds and papers without hesitation and set his communicator on the table in front of them.

“Hey,” CamM77 began to protest.

“I know, and I’m sorry, but this could be serious. Something’s wrong with the portal in the jungle and everything’s coming apart -”

BadTimes was annoyed at Void for interrupting the game, but he let it slide for the moment. The other cam was usually infuriatingly composed, impossible to shake, but this was the most unsettled BadTimes had ever seen him. Peering through the helmet’s visor, he thought he saw real fear in his friend’s eyes. It scared him, though he wouldn’t admit it out loud.

“Woah, woah, slow down.” True held her hands out and spoke in a clear, calming voice. “What portal?”

Void flicked on his communicator and projected a video clip above the table. “I found this near Iskall’s tree. X was talking about a weird portal earlier, and I’m almost certain this is what it grew into. It’s...” He shuddered at a memory and took a moment to gather himself. “It’s extremely dangerous, and I think it has something to do with Evil Xisuma.”

The other cams looked alarmed, but BadTimes’ fear suddenly evaporated. He couldn’t help but crack a grin. “That fool? You come in here, all shaken up and babbling on about nothing, and it turns out you’re out of your mind about  _ Evil Xisuma _ ?” BadTimes burst into laughter.

“This is no laughing matter! This is a potential rift in reality-”

“That Evil X will use to destroy the Hermitcraft world forever, yeah, yeah, I know.” BadTimes waved his hand dismissively. “Weird portal, Evil X attacks, your hermit takes care of it and we all go back to normal. It happens all the time!”

Void turned to confront him. “Thanks to you and your plans, Xisuma isn’t here to reason with him this time! And thanks to me….” The blame drained from his words and he slumped into a chair.. “I should have told Xisuma the first chance I got...he would have organised a meeting, made sure all of your problems with the Hermits were heard and talked out….”

He removed his helmet and buried his head in his hands. “I let you lock our friends in an obsidian box instead of communicating with them, and now everything they’ve built is in danger!”

IsGall stared at the video clip, worried. “That thing’s awfully close to Iskall’s tree...I know X is AFK, but if we release the Hermits, surely some of them will know enough to stop it.

“With my limited admin knowledge and their experience, that’s what I’m hoping,” Void replied.

BadTimes’ heart sunk as he felt his plan slipping from between his fingers. He looked around for someone to come to his defense, but even Grifter was starting to look horrified.

“Hey, buddy...maybe we didn’t go about this in the best way…?”

“Are you kidding me?” BadTimes through his hands in the air. “You’re practically the one who came up with this whole idea!”

“Well, actually, you were the one with the grand scheme.” Grifter wouldn’t meet his eyes. “I only ever wanted a bit of time off. Now everyone’s in danger.”

Cam spoke up. “I don’t think this was a total mistake. I did like doing some redstone for once...but there are more important things to focus on now. We can’t afford to be mad at the Hermits when there’s a threat to deal with.”

Void sighed. “I understand why today had to happen eventually. I know you’re all restless and bored, and those are things that need to be dealt with. We can deal with them in the open with our friends, after we’re sure the server is safe. Right now, we need to work together to stop whatever’s growing in the jungle.”

The room seemed to be waiting for BadTimes’ vote. He had a sinking feeling that his vacation was about to end regardless of what he said next, but he still tried to cling to the last scraps of his idea. He opened his mouth to protest, but his words dissolved as his eyes landed on the projected footage and he looked at it, truly, for the first time. He’d said before that weird portals happened all the time in their worlds, and it was true - but that thing did not look like a portal. It looked like...an impossibility. A glaring, world-eating abyss that shouldn’t exist, that very clearly did not belong in the home the hermits had built.

“Well...fine.” He sighed and headed for the door. “Scar owes me half of one vacation.” They would gather the other cams and go to the box at the spawn island. All of his scheming would have been for nothing, but in his heart, he knew it was for the best. Despite his best efforts to prove otherwise, he really did care about this place.

The mood was nervous as the others followed him out into the shopping district, but BadTimes found himself unexpectedly excited. Messing with Scar was one of his favourite activities, and though he hated to admit it, it just wasn’t much fun without  _ Scar _ . He felt a grin creep back to his face.

“Well, on the other hand, why did we do this in the first place? We wanted some action, didn’t we? To be part of the server goings-on?”

He paused in his stride and turned to face the others. “Well - looks like we might still be getting that, after all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't really have anything to say here, just that I hope you're all enjoying the story so far and I hope you're having a good day :)


	10. 09 - In which an Elder Guardian loses his babysitting job

**09 - In which an Elder Guardian loses his babysitting job**

“Stone, paper, shears!”

Iskall tossed his shears down on the obsidian floor. “I win again!”

Mumbo rolled his eyes and retrieved his paper. “You’re even more annoying in close quarters, you know,” he teased. “As soon as we get out of here, I’m making the next Hermit Challenge ‘let Mumbo win’.”

“A bold move for a man who introduced swap broth,” Iskall chuckled. “Have fun figuring out how to win against yourself.”

The clatter of a pick rang against his ears, same as it had been for the last several hours. They had figured that the best way to escape was to mine the same corner of the enclosure in shifts. Currently Tango was the one forcing his tired arms to raise and swing, fighting against the mining fatigue. Between shifts, the Hermits had been playing games and talking to keep away the boredom. It had worked so far, but Iskall was beginning to wonder just how thick this little box was.

“I’m going to take over for Tango.”

Mumbo nodded wordlessly, already looking for someone new to challenge. Iskall hefted his pick and started for the corner.

Before he could get there, something shifted. The fatigue abruptly lifted, and a second, faster sound joined Tango’s mining. Suddenly a burst of light poured from the corner as it was quickly broken from the outside. Iskall shielded his eyes against the glare and just barely managed to make out IsGall waving at him from the gap.

There was a short commotion as everyone tried to exit the tiny hole at once. Iskall managed to squeeze out just after Impulse, and he splashed over to his cam through the shallow water around the island.

“IsGall? This- this was all you?” he laughed in disbelief. All around him he could see other cams finding their hermits, a babble of conversations rising. “The box, the End, this was all the cams’ prank on us? We thought it was Xisuma for a while, but we never suspected you guys!”

As far as pranks went, it had been a bit irritating, but he had to credit them for creativity. However, as he drew closer, he saw that IsGall wasn’t smiling.

“It… it kind of wasn’t a prank.” IsGall drifted down to the water and looked away uncomfortably.

“What do you mean?”

“BadTimesWithScar planned it, and I went along with it because- I’m sorry, but it just got so frustrating!” he burst out. “Watching you make all these wonderful things and not being allowed to contribute anything…! I’ll take it all down if you ask me to - all the changes I made - but I just wanted you to know how hard it is for me sometimes.” He finally met Iskall’s gaze with a mixture of guilt and defiance.

Iskall was so frozen in shock, he almost forgot to keep afloat. “You… locked us away so you could add to my tree?”

“And for the others. They wanted it too.”

His eye widened as he looked up into IsGall’s face. The longing and frustration he found there brought him to a heart-wrenching realisation. All those years IsGall had spent filming his projects, all those suggestions he had made…. Iskall re-lived himself brushing them off as jokes, never thinking to try them or ask if they were serious. IsGall must have just been too polite to complain. He hated the thought that he’d been unable or unwilling to read past his friend’s smile to see what was really going on. They talked a lot together while he built, sure, but when was the last time he had actually asked his cam if he was happy?

IsGall avoided his gaze again. “I’m sorry….”

Iskall simply couldn’t take it anymore. Tears started spilling down his cheek. “Oh my… No, no, please don’t apologise! I’m the one who needs to say sorry. I never realised-!” He reached out and pulled IsGall into a hug. “You can show me what you’ve done, and I’ll keep it, and I’ll let you add more, I promise!”

IsGall gave a small half-sob, but he didn’t pull away. “Don’t promise that. You were right about how bad the netherrack would look.”

Iskall smiled, holding his friend even tighter. “Maybe. We’ll see.”

All around him he could see pairs of Hermits and cams having their own conversations, breaking their own barriers. Grian listened intently as Grifter related what sounded like a daring skeleton battle. Doc scratched his chin thoughtfully as Cam drew wild diagrams in the sand. BadTimes and Scar bickered back and forth as always, but this time it seemed like they were finally communicating, in their own special way.

Everyone was listening, trying their hardest to understand each other just a tiny bit better. Everyone was speaking, trying their best to share what it was like to be them. It was exactly what their world needed, and it was long, long overdue.

\-----------------------------------

Only Void stood alone. He surveyed the scene with relief at how his friends’ connection with the Hermits was being restored, but the thought of the rift still bit at his mind. He couldn’t stop seeing its outline when he blinked, its dark tendrils threatening to choke him. They needed this moment badly, but he didn’t know how fast the rip was expanding. He didn’t know how much time they had left.

“Attention, everyone.”

The conversations trickled to a natural stop, and the assembled Hermits and cams slowly turned to face him. The look on the Hermits’ faces was mostly innocent curiosity, but the cams wore looks of foreboding. They knew what was coming. They knew what he had to say.

Void took a deep breath. “We’re here because something is threatening our home. A strange portal in the jungle, possibly made by Evil Xisuma, has expanded into something much more dangerous.”

A rush of uneasy chatter blew through the crowd.

“Xisuma isn’t available to help us, so we need to work together to somehow stop or contain the rift.” Void tried to stop his hands from shaking. “I think it’s growing.”

Doc’s voice rose over the murmurs of the crowd. “Is this the same portal Zisuma was talking about? The Infinity Portal?”

“Yes, or rather, that’s what it used to be. I’m hoping that with your infinity portal experience and what little admin skill I’ve picked up from Xisuma, we can figure out how to reverse this.”

Doc frowned. “I would have to see it to know.”

“Yes, we’ll have to scout it out. From what I experienced, though, we’ll have to do it very carefully.” Void brought up the footage of the portal, and several of the Hermits crowded around to see it. “It’s dangerous to be around, and even more dangerous to look at. We need a good scouting party - nobody should go alone.”

“Yes, I think if we’ve learned anything from today, it’s that we need to stick together,” Grian said. “I think I can fly pretty close to that thing without getting pulled in, but I’m going to need to know more.”

“We need a plan,” said Grifter, drifting up next to Void. “And from the looks of that thing, we need it sooner rather than later.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: I wrote this late at night on 5% battery, but I was just so happy to keep going! Also, apparently this somehow passed the mark of being the longest story I've written so far??? Yay me, I guess!


	11. 10 - In which the jungle surrenders a few of its secrets

**10 - In which the jungle surrenders a few of its secrets**

Doc treaded the jungle floor with caution. The others were all around him, crashing through the undergrowth and calling to each other, but the thick vines had a way of smothering the sound until he almost felt alone. A certain unease radiated from the place, and it made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

He convinced himself that it was just his creeper half, reacting to the ocelots that scrambled in the bushes. That was the reasonable explanation, much more reasonable than what he knew to be true - it was the fear of the unknown, gnawing at him. It felt as though every unsolved problem about the portal and the jungle itself was hiding somewhere in the trees around him, ready to strike. That was nonsense though, and he had to stop thinking about it. To dwell on those things was the road to madness.

As they drew closer to the clearing, he tried instead to focus on possible solutions, lining up the factors involved. The infinity portal was his creation; if it was the root of the rift, he should be able to control it, solve it, and neutralise it before it could do any more harm. However, something told him that the new portal wouldn’t obey the limitations of the old, and it certainly wouldn’t obey him. He hoped he was wrong.

“Stop here.” Void held out his arms in front of the group, who all stopped well away from the edge of the clearing.

Through the trees, Doc could just barely see the pulsing void that stood in the clearing. It seemed to hover unsupported in the air, a jagged rip that let out a soft hum as it turned the earth to dust in a slowly growing radius. It seemed a lot larger than in the video, and hungrier. Was the rate of its growth increasing? He pulled his eyes away, remembering that it was dangerous to look at.

“Before we attempt to find out more, let's catalogue what we already know.” Void sat on a log and flipped on his communicator projection. “I don’t want anyone getting close to that thing unless we absolutely need to examine it.” He showed everyone the video clip, the odd entry and exit messages from Evil Xisuma, and the coordinates that now seemingly didn’t exist. A hum of conversation rose from the gathered Hermits and cams as people started asking questions and pitching theories.

The pieces were beginning to fall together in Doc’s mind, and he didn’t like the picture that was forming. “Evil Zisuma obviously tried to get here using the portal. It must have somehow overcome the ban X put on him… The portal takes people to where they most want to go, and I think he most wanted to come here and destroy us.”

“I don’t think that he was trying to create a rift, though,” BadTimes said, peering at the void from around a jungle tree. “The guy likes to get it done himself, you know? Lightning and TNT and big glorious theatrics. This doesn’t seem like his style.”

Doc agreed. “I don’t think he planned for this to happen. I think something went wrong, and the portal collapsed.”

Void started to look a bit pale. “I don’t know all the details of how banning works, that’s Xisuma’s area of expertise. But…” He began to flip through communicator readouts nervously. “I do know that our universe is coded to forbid the existence of Evil Xisuma. Evil X and our world simply can’t occupy the same space.”

“But when he came here with the portal, they did.” Doc’s heart sank as his suspicions were confirmed.

“As soon as he stepped out of the portal, the world was given an impossible scenario. It must have gotten overwhelmed by itself and Evil Xisuma existing on the same plane and…tried to solve the problem by removing both factors.” Void flipped off his communicator and rubbed his temples.

“‘Removing both factors’? As in, Evil X and  _ the world!? _ ” Iskall was starting to look panicked. “What do you mean, ‘removed’? Removed to where?”

“And most importantly,” Mumbo interjected, “how do we stop it?”

“Well, the original portal takes you to where you most want to go, right Doc?” Scar mused. “Then the not-nice version would take you…”

“Nowhere good.” Looking at that hungry blackness, Doc was almost sorry for Evil X, wherever he had ended up.

“Which is why we have to make it stop.” Void looked at him expectantly.

A bead of sweat trickled down Doc’s forehead as he looked around at his friends, waiting to hear how he was going to stop his old project from destroying their home. He deeply, deeply didn’t want to tell them what he had to say next.

“I don’t think we can. At least, not until X gets back. He could unban Evil X, but then it might be too late.”

“And besides, unbanning Evil X means Evil X isn’t banned, and we can’t have that.” Void looked annoyed at just the thought of having to deal with Xisuma’s evil clone again.

“There has to be a way!” Grian’s eyes lit up as though he’d just had an idea. “Even if we can’t reverse it, maybe we can work against it somehow?”

“That’s something to consider- wait!” Mumbo made a futile grab at Grian’s sleeve as the latter abruptly took off, rocketing toward the rift. “That’s dangerous!”

Iskall stopped Mumbo from running after Grian. “One idiot near the thing is enough! Grian, be careful!”

Doc scrambled up a nearby vine and shielded his eyes from the sun, trying to get a better view. Grian had stopped just short of the rift, and was staring at the ground by the edge of the ever-growing hole it had created. A dirt block crumbled right by his feet and went sailing off into the void. Doc started to worry that Grian had been transfixed by staring into the portal, but at last, he moved.

He placed a dirt block where the previous one had just been destroyed. It was reduced to dust and sucked into the void, but for just a moment, it stayed stuck to the edge of the hole. Grian placed two more. They were consumed, one after the other, but there was a definite pause between the two blocks disappearing.

Doc clambered down from the vines, his mind beginning to race. The portal could only consume things at a certain speed! If they could feed it blocks for long enough, if he could build a machine fast enough - they might just be able to stabilize it. A whole new world of possibilities had just opened up, and suddenly it seemed they might have a chance.

A sound drew his eyes back to the rift. As Grian turned to come back to the group, the tear suddenly surged. The ground was ripped out from beneath his feet, and he narrowly avoided being pulled backwards into the darkness. A shower of rockets brought him safely out of the clearing and tumbled in a heap on the ground. Iskall and Mumbo rushed over to examine and scold him as the others absorbed this new discovery.

Doc’s mind was still whirling with plans, but now he thought he had a solution concrete enough to suggest. It wouldn’t be easy. It would need exact precision, perfect timing and judgement, and plenty of help. Also…it would put him and the people he cared about directly in the danger zone. He didn’t know what horror waited for them if they were to fall into that rift, but the one thing he was certain of was that he didn’t want to find out. More and more he began to think that the infinity project had been a mistake. Maybe some things were meant to stay out of reach.

He gathered his thoughts and took a deep breath. 

“There’s a chance.” The others turned, waiting for more, allowing hope to creep back into their eyes.

One last addition to the project, one last impossible creation, for the sake of their world. It would take everyone to pull this off - redstoners, builders, especially the cams. A small, ironic smile began to spread across his face.

This was going to make one hell of a timelapse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: By the way, Evil Xisuma first found the infinity portal in someone’s Season 6 world download (which he wouldn’t be banned from) and used it to attempt entry into season 7. I just couldn’t find a non-weird way to communicate “world download” in fiction lol


	12. 11 - In which the world stands still

**11 - In which the world stands still**

Grian was a man who had built palaces with his bare hands. He had raised massive buildings from nothing but raw materials, placing each block and tiny detail with precision and care. It was what he did best - no project too big, no challenge too difficult. With every new building he tried his hardest to improve, to see just how much more he could take on. He would like to say that this would be his biggest project yet, but to be honest, it actually felt quite simple compared to the monumental builds that were his usual style.

He looked around at the builders that stood next to him, all gazing toward the center of the clearing. Scar, Bdubs, Keralis, and many more: each masters at what they did. This task wouldn’t need any mastery though - it was just placing blocks. Grian knew he should probably be nervous - after all, this “just placing blocks” needed to be done near a swirling death portal - but he wasn’t afraid. He felt certain he could do this - that they could do this, together.

Grian peered up into the sky, squinting against the sun. “Grifter? How’s it looking from up there?”

“One moment, I’ll show you,” shouted the faint reply from midair.

Grian checked his communicator to see a live video feed from Grifter’s camera. He saw the rift in the center of the clearing, dark as ever and consuming the world around it. It had definitely gotten bigger since yesterday. All around the rift, far enough away as to hopefully be safe, the more redstone-inclined Hermits and cams made their preparations. Shulkers of supplies had been gathered, and Doc assured them all that he and the others had a design that would work - if they had enough time to build it.

That was where Grian’s crew came in. They needed to go right to the edge of the portal and do everything they could to stall its progress. The cams would help them, some placing blocks, some giving them an aerial view of the situation. Working together, they couldn’t possibly fail.

A scattering of pings sounded from the communicators around him.

<xisumavoid> everyone ready?

<BadTimeWithScar> born ready

<BadTimeWithScar> also void, u sound like a teacher about to take us all on a field trip

Grian cracked a smile. It seemed he wasn’t the only one who’d been able to maintain a lighthearted attitude. Unless BadTimes’ joking was just a coverup for fear.

If so, maybe he wasn’t the only one. Grian wasn’t lying to himself - he really did believe they could do this! Still, his close call with the rift earlier bothered him. It wasn’t the idea of falling, of feeling the ground reduced to dust beneath his feet. It wasn’t even the way the rift looked - like a wound in reality itself - that made him cringe. It was the way the nothingness felt….

He shook off the thought and turned to the others. “Alright, are we doing this?”

“If you want to go first, be my guest.” Bdubs side-eyed the rift suspiciously.

<Grian> heading in

<Grian> good luck

Grian put away his communicator. No point in waiting. He grabbed a stack of cobble and sprinted toward the center of the clearing, bursting from the cover of the trees into the harsh sunlight. The footsteps of the others pounded on the ground as they followed close behind.

“Spread out! We need to hold it back from all sides!”

He skidded to a stop near the edge of the gaping hole in the ground and started placing down blocks as fast as he could. Each block he placed crumbled and broke off, sailing into the void, but he knew it was helping. It had to be. He could faintly hear the redstoners calling to each other, coordinating their efforts as they built the four sides of the perimeter. Doc and Cam were on the side of the clearing closest to Grian, passing components back and forth and working side by side. Impulse, Tango, Zedaph, and Mumbo raced between the other three sides, placing hoppers and counting out delay times as fast as they could.

“Is it working?” Grian shouted up toward Grifter. He couldn’t check the video right now; his hands were too busy replacing the dirt over and over and over again. He couldn’t tell if it was any use. Every time he placed a block it seemed to be ripped away faster and faster. He was forced to step back as the portal started gaining ground, tearing up the earth beneath his feet.

“Um…” Grifter called down. “I think it’s slowing down?”

The first spark of doubt lit up in the pit of Grian stomach, but before he could get too discouraged, a flash of purple and green swirled through the air. Tendrils of magical energy reached out and grasped the edges of the rift, squeezing it inward with a roar of clashing power.

He looked up to see Scar and BadTimes hovering above the clearing, Scar’s magic crystals clutched tightly in their fists. Scar’s eyes glowed green as he thrust his hands forward, increasing the flow of magic to the rift. Grian stared at the coloured light in wonder. He’d always assumed that the crystals were mostly nonsense, but now it seemed he’d judged them wrong. He wasn’t exactly going to complain - they needed all the help they could get.

“Is that the best you can do?” BadTimes’ purple eyes narrowed as he grinned at Scar. “Well, watch  _ this _ !”

He swept out his own hand and a swirl of violet strengthened beside the green. “I always said I’d be better at this than you!”

“It’s not a competi- you know what, as long as it keeps you helping, sure,” Scar laughed. “It is a competition.” He squinted his own eyes in concentration and strengthened the purple until it outshone the green.

Grian felt steadied by the presence of his friends. Every time he placed a block, dozens of hands worked beside him, and he knew he was never alone. All around him, all the hermits and cams did their best to stop the progression of darkness, to save their world. All the questions and chaos of the day before were set aside in the face of what they had to overcome, and everyone had an equal part in this, the most important project of them all. Despite the danger, despite the rush and the risk, he knew that this was why they were here, what they were meant to be doing. Changing their world, side by side.

“Grian!”

Doc’s voice was edged with a panic that Grian had rarely heard from him. He snapped back to the task at hand to find that the rift had grown dangerously close to the redstone perimeter, threatening to consume the closest components. Doc was haphazardly throwing down blocks with one hand in a desperate attempt to push back the rift, while his other arm gripped CamM77, who was staring directly into the void. His eyes were blank, captivated by the portal’s power, and he seemed to be trying to walk towards it. Doc couldn’t keep hold of him and hold back the portal for long.

“I’m here!”

Grian was the closest. He’d been distracted, and he couldn’t let his friends or their plan pay the price! He grabbed a stack of dirt in both hands and started building faster than he ever had before. He packed the dirt into the rift, pushing it back from the redstone, further and further until he actually started gaining ground. Finally, he was placing blocks faster than the rift could consume them. A rush of victory swept over him as he pushed himself farther and farther, desperate to keep up the pace.

“Grian, be careful!” Scar yelled from the air.

“I am!” he shouted back, but he wasn’t. Not as much as he should have been.

Grian had never been afraid of falling. He was a natural flyer - heights were his friend. He had never understood how a person could be scared of something so natural, so thrilling as the rush of open air.

Never understood, that is, until his next step back was met with emptiness.

He had built too far. He had attempted too much.

His scream was absorbed by the uncaring void.

\-----------------------------------

Grifter didn’t even stop to think. He just dropped his camera and dove.

The moment he saw the ground crumble under Grian’s feet, he shouted and shot through the air, arms outstretched, willing himself to be fast enough. The only fear he knew was the fear that he’d be too late, that he’d have to watch his friend disappear into the darkness with no hope left to save him. In that moment, the danger of the portal meant nothing to him.

His hand clutched onto Grian’s wrist just in time. He pulled back in midair, trying his hardest to keep Grian’s feet out of the all-consuming darkness. The grinding roar of the portal filled his ears until he could barely think.

“I’ve got you!” he shouted, as though it would make it true, but now the rift was slowly and steadily pulling him in, too. Grian’s eyes were wide with fear, and he was shouting something that Grifter could barely hear over the rush of air, something about letting him go and saving himself. He couldn’t do that. He wouldn’t. At least if they both fell, neither would be alone.

Just as Grifter’s strength began to waver, just as he thought he would have to give up, an arm looped under his own and hauled him upward.

“Got him! I’ve got him!”

A dozen hands joined the arm as everyone who was close enough helped BadTimes heave the pair away from the rift. Grifter staggered onto solid ground, still grasping tight to Grian’s wrist. The hermit seemed unharmed, but Grifter wasn’t given time to check him over properly.

“Clear the perimeter!” Impulse’s voice rang out from the edge of the clearing, his hand on an activation lever.

Grifter and Grian were shuffled away from the portal as one, then two, then three sides of the perimeter clanked and whirred to life. Blocks started pouring from cobblestone generators, pushed by pistons toward the center of the clearing. The rift ate them as hungrily as ever, but they were replaced just as soon as it could destroy them. For a moment it seemed the portal would outpace the machine, and Grifter’s heart sank. Everyone held their breath as Doc flipped the last lever and backed away from the clearing.

A second passed, then another. The rift didn’t grow.

One last, nervous heartbeat of silence passed, before finally, the jungle exploded into a chorus of sighs, cheers, and tears of relief. Grifter fell to his knees on the leaf-strewn floor and laughed. They had done it! It was almost beyond belief.

“Grifter! Are you hurt? You saved me….” Grian scrambled closer through the undergrowth and started checking him over for any injuries. Grifter yanked Grian into a hug and almost started sobbing at how real he felt, how solid and alive and  _ there _ he was.

“Am I hurt? Am  _ I _ hurt? You’re the one who almost fell into it!”

Grian chuckled. “Well, you’re the one who had to lift me and all that cobble I was carrying with just one arm. Might as well check that your wrist isn’t broken.”

“I’m just glad everyone is safe.”

“Me too, buddy. Me too.”

The clank of machinery faded into the background, mingling with the chirp of parrots among the trees. The vines rustled softly as the breeze wove through them, blowing and fading in a soothing rhythm. As the hermits and cams caught their breath and recovered, the world they loved seemed to pause, and breathe with them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: I know I say this every other chapter, but this one really was quite long. Hopefully it was worth the read! I definitely enjoyed writing it. (Also, if you have any questions about the redstone, feel free to ask! I actually built it myself to make sure it was believable, so I'll take any excuse to ramble about it lol)


	13. 12 - Timelapse of a new beginning

**12 - Timelapse of a new beginning**

“One day! I was gone for one day, maybe two, and there’s been - there’s been an uprising and some sort of corrupted infinity portal?” Xisuma sat on the edge of a block and began to massage his temples.

“Not exactly an uprising,” Void corrected. “More of a…miscommunication. And you missed the part about Evil Xisuma.”

The confused hermit groaned and started retrieving his stuff from a chest near his AFK chamber. “Oh, how could I forget. I guess I’ve got that to deal with now, too. Jeez.”

Void smiled gently. “I actually think that one might not be a problem anymore. Wherever he is, he now knows that the portal strategy won’t work the way he wanted it to. He might try something new next time, but I don’t think we’ll have to worry about rifts for a while.”

Void had tried his best to fill X in on what had happened in his absence, but he knew it was a lot to process. Like most of the hermits, Xisuma hadn’t really been aware that the cams were unhappy. After hearing about the events of the last couple days, though, he’d promised to have a talk with the others about how they could all be more conscious of their friends’ needs. It was an excellent idea, and would definitely be useful, but something told Void that they didn’t really need it anymore. With or without a meeting, things would be better now. There’s nothing like a crisis to bring people together and force them to see things from a different perspective.

“Come on, we’re going to be late for the opening.” Void pressed a stack of rockets into Xisuma’s hands and beckoned for him to follow.

“What open- you know what, I’ll just figure it out as we go.” Xisuma sighed and gave a soft smile, seemingly resigning himself to being confused for the next little while. Void had worried that after this, X would never want to take a break again, but the fact that the rift had been stopped seemed to help. Still, it would probably be a while until the next time Xisuma felt comfortable enough to leave the server to its own devices.

He stepped into the nether portal, with Xisuma following close behind. Hopefully a stroll through the nether hub would give the hermit enough time to gather his thoughts before the big event. A tingle of excitement ran through Void as he looked forward to the gathering, and to the days ahead.

\-----------------------------------

A cool breeze brushed the tops of the sun-speckled trees, carrying the scent of spruce down into the forest and weaving it through the crowd that was gathered beneath the branches. Grifter breathed deeply, savouring the smell and listening to the faint chirp of foxes as he waited. It reminded him of another spruce forest just a couple days ago, when he had first set out for his day off. He closed his eyes, remembering the excitement and wonder that had filled him. Even though so much had happened in the time between then and now, in some ways, today felt exactly the same.

“When are we starting? It’s been like an hour,” BadTimes huffed, abandoning his mission to stick ferns in Scar’s hair without him noticing.

“It’s been five minutes,” Grifter sighed, smiling. “Grian will start when everyone gets here.”

The hum of the nearby nether portal signalled the arrival of Void and Xisuma. Grifter wondered for a minute if they had any trouble finding the new portal. This place was far enough from spawn that they’d needed to make a new hallway in the nether hub, but it seemed they’d managed to find their way. The two silently found their places in the group and waited with anticipation.

“All right, now that we have everyone here…” Grian stood before the crowd, in front of a thick red wool ribbon stretched between two trees. “I’m not really sure why I’m the one doing this, other than I was the only one with shears on hand.” He chuckled, and the group laughed with him. “But I guess now that I’m up here, I should say a few words.”

“The last few days have been...challenging. We’ve been confused, panicked, and divided, but we’ve managed to come through it all right, together. If we didn’t all have each other, this world would be dead. If I didn’t have Grifter-” He found Grifters eyes in the crowd and met them with deep kindness. “-I would be dead.”

He looked around at everyone gathered, all the cams and hermits together under the morning sun. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from the last few days, it’s that we have to take care of each other. Our friends, our family - that’s all we have really, in the end. All of this,” he gestured to the world around him, “without them - without  _ you _ \- all of this is just blocks.”

“Void said earlier that it was a mistake to lock us up, but us hermits have made a big mistake, too. We’ve gone too long without paying attention, and I hope this place will be the first step in fixing that. Cams; whenever you’re tired or bored or just need a break, this new district is just a portal and a short stroll away.”

He’d managed to hold a serious air for this long, but now Grifter saw a smile creep back onto his face. “I’m so, so excited to see what you create here. Welcome, one and all, to the grand opening of the Hermitcam District!”

Shears flashed in the sunlight and the ribbon fluttered to the ground. The crowd cheered. Grifter ran over to Grian and gave him a big hug as the others started running around to explore.

“Did I do okay?” Grian laughed as he disentagled himself from Grifter’s arms. “I had a script, but I think it got lost in my storage system….”

“You did great!” Grifter stepped back and turned around in a circle, taking in the trees and hills. All around him, houses and shops and statues sprang up in his mind’s eye. He could see it so clearly, a place of their own…. Of course he would still spend most of his time back at Grian’s base, but as long as the Hermitcam District was there for whenever he got too tired, he knew he would enjoy every minute of it.

Through the trees, he could see some of the others already beginning to build. IsGall was raising some netherrack monstrosity in the distance, with Iskall smiling and shaking his head in the background. A tnt blast and a flurry of pistons sounded from over the hill, where Grifter assumed Doc and CamM77 were causing some manner of chaos. Grifter couldn’t wait to start his own project, but it was all so much to take in. He just didn’t know where to start.

Grifter caught Grian’s arm just as he was turning back to the nether portal. “H-hey, if you don’t mind… I mean, if you have time…”

Grian turned. “Yes?”

Grifter looked down shyly, nervously fiddling with his camera. “Would you mind maybe giving me a few building tips?”

Grifter’s breath caught in surprise as he felt his camera gently pulled from his grasp. He looked up to see Grian holding it, a friendly smile on his face.

“No problem! As long as you’ll teach me how to timelapse it.”

Grifter laughed and the two bounded off into the forest, looking for the perfect spot to begin the build. They found it, of course, because they had realised the same thing that all the others had learned - any spot is perfect when you’re building with a friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: And with that, Timelapse of an Uprising has come to an end! Sappy author’s note below, but if you don’t feel like reading it, just know this: I appreciate each and every person who read this so much, and I really hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I loved writing it!
> 
> Thank you so much to my two wonderful beta readers, and to everyone who left a comment on this thing. If it weren’t for the motivation you gave me, this would have never been finished - and that’s not an exaggeration. When I first started this I didn’t really think anyone would go for the concept, but I’ve loved seeing how much people seem to enjoy it.
> 
> Anyway, stay tuned for more Hermitcraft! I’ll probably just write one-shots for a little while since I find updating to be mega stressful. I may be convinced to write an epilogue or bonus chapter for this if there’s interest - or I might just do it for the fun of it. Who knows! But, most likely, this is the end. Thanks for sticking around! :)


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